Worship Matters: Daniel 3:1, 8-20 - First Sunday in Advent
Advent is my absolute favorite season of the church year. I love the lights, the music, the hopeful expectation. Unfortunately, in 2023, the fourth Sunday in Advent fell on Christmas Eve, which shortened the Advent season to a mere 21 days. To me, that felt like being made to wait for your Thanksgiving dinner, only to be told you have only ten minutes to eat it. First candle of Advent by Aron n Alisons on flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Advent is a season of watching and waiting, which should not be rushed. Unfortunately, this coincides with what is the busiest and most hectic time of the year. Our lives run full throttle until Christmas ends, and there’s nothing else to anticipate other than snow shoveling. And yet, there is a 600-year period in salvation history you could describe as an Advent. This was the time that would pass between the fall of Jerusalem, the ending of the Davidic monarchy, and the birth of the new king descended from the House of David who will rule God’s people. We ...
